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Monday, September 05, 2005

I'm now accepting submissions for the next storyblogging carnival, which, as many of you know, is our first anniversary. It's been a full year since the carnival started, and it's grown, slowly butsurely. I'd like to make this one our best yet. Aside from sending me your own stories, also let your readers know about this upcoming event, so they have the chance to participate. If you have a story you'd like to submit, send it to me (dscrankATalum.mit.edu) with the following information: * Name of your blog * URL of your blog * Title of the story * URL for the blog entry where the story is posted * (OPTIONAL) Author's name * (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R) * A word count * A short blurb describing the story

Doc Searls was wondering what's ahead for those of us here in the West, and if we're prepared for the Big Earthquake. I'm pretty sure we are here in Yuma. We have a recent disaster plan which also takes into account refugees in six figures coming from SoCal.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

First it was the politicians making sure they got their share of media attention by issuing Katrina-related statements, now corporations are getting into the act. In this case, it’s a double whammy as domestic violence victims are added to the mix.

There are so many problems with this particular PR campaign, I hardly know where to begin.

Rather than illustrating the depth of these corporations’ compassion, it gives a clear picture of their lack of understanding of the issue and their willingness to profit from the misery of people affected by intimate partner abuse.

This campaign is a thinly-veiled attempt to create a special class of hurricane victims by claiming that those who are already “battered victims” as the release says, are somehow “invisible” and in danger of “slipping through the cracks.” Does this mean that LCADV and NNEDV believe that organizations providing hurricane relief will not provide the same services to these individuals that they provide everyone else?

The press release gives no mention of the fact that Katrina has already done a significant portion of the shelters’ job for them. It has effectively removed women and their children from their homes, which is a key function of shelter procedure. The second part of the program – divorce – becomes almost a moot point in a situation where the government entities which deal with these issues are at best, in disarray. The third part of the program, the revenge portion, which generally consists of submitting the man in the relationship to economic sanctions, “re-education” programs, or outright incarceration, is also problematic when law enforcement has critical issues of criminal activity to address. Police will be far less likely to be willing to arrest men for personal relationship problems simply on the word of the woman involved when so many serious crimes against people and property are being committed.

In this case, with so many people in close quarters at refugee centers, and other situations where families are no longer isolated behind closed doors, those who abuse their spouses or families at a degree that requires intervention will most likely be recognized and dealt with as such.

The fact that the orgs involved seem to believe all their special class of victims need is money as fast as possible, (there is no mention what they expect this money will be used for), is particularly telling.

Wouldn’t you think they would be asking for volunteers to counsel victims in dealing with their problem, or some other focused solution of relevance to their issue?

Certainly, that is the logical need of this particular group of people, but shelters do not provide that sort of aid in the first place. All women’s shelters provide is an opportunity for separation, divorce, and revenge. In some cases they also provide some minimal preparation for entry-level jobs.

Shelter advocates are on a continuous fund-raiser, because they believe money is the solution to the problems they face, so it shouldn’t be any surprise they don’t have a defined idea of their clients’ need, now that the rest of the population of the area is also separated from their families and seeking relocation aid. They want money to keep their programs running, and more money for their clientele, because it has never occurred to them to ask for anything else.

Mary Kay and Altria see a chance for some good PR that makes them seem compassionate and altruistic, so why not provide some minor grants which would probably cost significantly less than advertising for their products? This is common practice in the corporate world. They are doing nothing more or less than expected. Yet in this case, they are demonstrating their ignorance of the organizations they support, and they may well come to regret this knee-jerk, poorly crafted bit of PR as it is such an obvious ruse of benefit to no one.

No one, that is, but the women’s shelter advocates who see their incomes and community influence disappearing in the flood.

So there is potential for good in this scenario. In times of crisis, nonessential and ineffective programs tend to come to light as what they are, and often do not survive. Once the public recognizes what these domestic violence agencies actually do and how they function, perhaps there will be better and more realistic approaches down the road. We can only hope this comes to pass.

Friday, September 02, 2005

There's an interesting look at how the TV guys are getting their reports out from hurricane-batteted areas here at TVSpy

An excerpt:

Mr. Womack said that one of CNN's main problems had been finding ways to recharge technical equipment. "We had been using car batteries," he said. "But now most of them are under water."

Many news organizations surveyed surrounding areas to find recreational vehicles that could be used as both supply carriers and air-conditioned shelter for crews. Mr. Womack said CNN had leased every such vehicle it could find in the Atlanta area. NBC rented recreational vehicles from all over Texas, filled them with food and water, and drove them toward New Orleans.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Blog City, a blog host based in Scotland with members worldwide, has added a new function to its welcome page at http://www.blog-city.com/bc/ it is a link to donate for Katrina relief.

To ensure the donation goes straight to a well-known American charity where its members would be comfortable sending a donation, Blog City’s link goes to the Salvation Army.

The well-known blogger NZBear, has launched Blog for Relief Day – a day of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina. See here for more information. Bloggers from anywhere can join in the effort!

Meanwhile here at home in the US, Strengthen The Good is launching "Matching The Good," where bloggers act as their own matching fund for victims of the disaster.

The program: Bloggers, rather than just making a donation to their charity of choice, challenge their readers to match the level of the donation by Midnight of next Monday (that allows five days for donations). Info here.

Update: The God Blog has a prayer option for the kind of help money can't provide

Sunday, August 28, 2005

"We'll be back after this message." Those words, or ones close to them, were heard for the first time on this day 83 years ago, as the first commercial was broadcast on the new medium of radio. Station WEAF in New York City carried that first ad not for soap or automobiles but for a group of apartment buildings in Queens. The cost was $100 for 10 minutes of programming. At the time, there were just 30 stations in the whole country and only 60,000 households had receivers. Now, there are nearly 11,000 stations. The average household has about six radios, and some $19.5 billion is spent on radio advertising each year. Find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at http://www.census.gov.

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments ready to air on a monthly CD or on Internet at http://www.census.gov (look under the "Newsroom" button).

Duncan Riley, Editor of the Blog Herald, said that being placed amongst the Top 500 bloggers in the world was a great honour, and proved that the Australian blogosphere can and is being counted internationally.

"Despite the Australian blogosphere still being a relatively small player in the world scene, Australian bloggers are being heard and are making a difference" said Mr Riley. "Although we may not always be recognised within Australia, this recognition at an International level may help in spreading the word that blogging in Australia is growing, and Australians do have the potential of making a name for themselves amongst the 70 million odd blogs currently in existence."

Melbourne blogger Darren Rowse, who was featured recently in The Age Newspaper and who blogs full time for a living, stated that Australian bloggers had a wonderful opportunity to make a difference on the internet.

"Geography is no longer a constraint to success. Readers in the United States or the United Kingdom don't worry about where you're from, they are interested in what you write and how you write it," said Rowse. "People want and need spaces to interact with others with similar interests, passions, problems and ideas, and Australians have a natural ability to create such spaces."

Cameron Reilly satirically added that he wanted more Australians on the list. "w00t! This is the best news I've received since I found out about the "Hot Coffee" crack for GTA. There should be more Aussies in this list though. Do we want the Yanks to dominate this thing? Let's lift our game, people. Let's take it to the streets."